The Michigan Pollution Prevention Program Green Chemistry Design Awards Competition (Competition) is a partnership between the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Michigan institutions of higher education, and industry.  The primary direction of this competition is to promote public awareness and behavioral changes in industy and consumers.  These are the critical components of promoting a shift towards environmentally safe and sustainable products, processes, and systems.  It is essential that we aid in the education of engineering students and other disciplines to understand design principles and the discovery that leads into the implementation of systems that embrace green chemistry and green engineering.  Investing future engineers and other scholars with an understanding of the fundamentals, methodology, technology, principles, and policies of these concepts will perserve valuable resources and omit future impacts on our environment, since they will be our future decision makers. 

The competition's goals are:

• Encourage green chemistry and green engineering research, development, demonstration, education, and technology transfer.
• Promote the use of chemical technologies that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances during the design, manufacture, and use of chemical products and processess; and
• Encourage the use of safer, less toxic, or non-toxic chemical alternatives to hazardous substances to promote sustainable economic development in Michigan.

The adoption of  green chemistry and green engineering principles into industry requires managers to first become aware of such opportunities; and second, to be willing to change institutional behavior, which is product driven.  Many behaviors can be changed if the benefits are clear and important to the company.  Economic benefits and environmental costs are decision tools that can drive production changes.  This is why it is important to educate engineering students and other disciplines with design principles to implement sustainable systems throughout industry.  This competition will invest engineering students with the fundamentals of pollution prevention through the principles of green chemistry and green engineering.  The competition's main goal is to help students recognize and understand the significance of sustainable design, green chemistry, and green engineering and why they should practice these concepts throughout their career

The goal of this competition is to invest in Michigan's future by teaching concepts of green chemistry, green engineering, and how to facilitate the commercializing of green technologies.